


5th time's a charm for making friends, isn't it?

by rednow



Series: mishandled discs and memory books (dream smp) [8]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: 5 Things, 5+1 Things, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Clay | Dream-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Crying, Dialogue Heavy, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Exiled TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Manipulative Relationship, Physical Abuse, Scared TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Self-Hatred, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Unhappy Ending, Unhealthy Relationships, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, arguable happy ending it's literally still painful LMAO, except it's not so it's like 5 + 0 things, so much arguing oh my god dream just can't shut UP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 13:34:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30140334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rednow/pseuds/rednow
Summary: “Tommy, don’t,” Dream warned. “Your time will come, now is not your time to die.”Your time will come,Tommy wanted to laugh. Tommy wanted to laugh himself into hysteria as he made the jump, finally,finally, crossing the finishing line of life.Peering down the ledge, he agreed. He’d grown attached to Dream more than he let on.— Or, the 4 times Dream pressurized Tommy to be his friend, and the one time Tommy succumbed.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: mishandled discs and memory books (dream smp) [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140326
Comments: 35
Kudos: 192





	5th time's a charm for making friends, isn't it?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [itisjosh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/itisjosh/gifts).



> hey josh, it's me :] i've caught up now lmao, the gift war has literally turned me into a writing machine. ily <3
> 
> cw: physical abuse, emotional manipulation/pestering, suicidal thoughts and tendencies, failed suicide attempt. please stay safe, and do not proceed any further if this may trigger you. this is heavy angst!
> 
> happy reading! <3

1

“Tommy, did you miss me?”

Tommy looked up hesitantly. Dream peered down at him, white mask washed pristine, bouncing lightly back and forth on his heels on soft earth. 

Tommy stared at the tuft of grass near his heels, choosing his words carefully. “Kind of, Dream. Why, did you?”

Dream laughed, and Tommy looked up just in time to see the crinkling at the edges of his eyes behind his mask. “I did, dummy,” he said, elbowing him. “I wouldn’t come to meet you everyday otherwise. Did you miss me?”

So he wasn’t the only one then. Tommy breathed out a laugh shakily. “Yeah okay, Dream, I did too.” 

“That’s good, because I have a present for you.” 

Tommy’s eyes brightened, and he immediately angled away to not let it show. “That’s cool,” he said, eyes darting. “What is it?”

 _“Tommy,”_ Dream pressed, taking his time with the name. “Don’t you wanna see it? It’s all for you, I got it just for you. Don’t you wanna see it? You’re going to have to look at me to do that, you know.”

Tommy exhaled, looking up at him. “Is it really… all for me?”

“Only for you, yeah,” Dream shrugged. “I thought I'd get you something for being my best friend.” He caught Tommy's hitch in breath. “I _am_ your best friend, right? Don’t say it’s Tubbo now, c’mon Tommy. That would be funny, wouldn’t it?”

Tommy’s fingers slid on the compass in his pocket, his feet crunching on soft snow. Winter had departed slowly, lingering in the form of snow behind rocks, and early spring set its cool hands on the server’s lands. 

It could be beautiful, and it was, violently so.

“Oh, _Tommy,"_ Dream grinned, dragging out his name. He shoved his shoulder. “Don’t be silly. Tubbo _exiled_ you! Tubbo doesn’t want you at all, let him go! When will you take what you get? I get you a present and this is how you treat me? Your best friend?”

Tommy’s toes curled inside shoes that had grown too tight for him. Fuck it, he thought. If there was something that remained worth fighting for in this bleak life, it could very well be Tubbo. 

“Sorry, Dream,” he told the taller man solidly. “Tubbo’s still my best friend.”

Courage is nice, Tommy thought. Courage helps you do things you normally wouldn’t do. 

Tommy knew what was coming next.

Tommy knew what was coming next, and it was stupid to have consciously brought it about.

Dream’s eyes narrowed. “So that’s how it’s going to be, huh? I see… that’s how it is going to be.” Dream advanced, closing the space between them and Tommy knew he should’ve faltered backward, kept the space between them, but he stood rooted, hands trembling.

“Armour in the pit.” Dream commanded, tone grindingly harsh. _“Now._ I mean it. You don’t deserve a gift Tommy, you don’t deserve a _single_ act of kindness. Armour in the pit, _now,_ and don’t make me have to hit you.”

Tommy stripped himself silently, grace falling from his hands to the earth. He breathed out, trying to relax in the vulnerability, but his shoulders tensed up.

Dream loomed closer, the heel of his boots digging into the soil. “You know what, Tommy? I’m going to burn your present too. Just because you’re the most ungrateful little bitch I’ve come across. I got the present for you, but now you’re not gonna get it.”

Tommy knew it. He should’ve _known_ Dream would pull some shit like that.

“Turn around, Tommy,” Dream’s voice ordered, shaking Tommy out of his fragile coma. “I’m going to throw your present into the pit with all your armour and blow it up.”

Tommy whirled around, head buzzing static from all the orders. Behind him, out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Dream nudged his armour deeper into the pit with his shoe. He threw in a piece of inflammable TNT, covering the pit with earth. 

Tommy watched, his back angled away, as Dream lit the pit up, and faltered a step back. He watched as all his armour blew up, the sound of destruction reverbing in his ears.

There was no gift.

There had never been one. Dream hadn’t brought him anything.

Courage is nice, Tommy thought. But courage burns out quicker. He just didn’t know how long it would take.

~

2

“Why didn’t anyone come to my party that day, Dream?” 

“I don’t know… Tommy. Do you want a distraction? Would you like to use my trident?”

“No. I don't want a fucking _distraction._ I wanna know why no one cares about me enough to come to my party,” Tommy’s voice shook as much as his hands trembled, trying to collect his flowers from the ground. “To come to the _one thing_ that I asked them to come to! I sent all of them invitations! I would’ve allowed them to come without invitations too. I just wanted them to come to my party.”

“I could be your friend, Tommy.” Dream tried to slip a gloved hand into his own, but Tommy picked up an allium just in time.

Dream and him. Flower fields. Tommy’s favourite place, but without his favorite person. 

It could be worse, he supposed.

~

3

This time they were fighting. Tommy hated when Dream yelled, only to go back to niceties, and return back to yelling.

Dream stood before him, near the makeshift house they’d built for him together. “Why not me, Tommy?”

Tommy knew exactly what Dream was asking. He cleared his throat. “Why not you, what?”

“Why can’t I be your best friend?”

His heart pounded at the recurring conversations they seemed to be having. “Because you can’t, I already have one.”

“And what’s in him?” Tommy stilled. “What’s in him, Tommy? What do you find in him? What do you look for when you make friends?”

Tommy’s eyes burnt with growing unshed tears. 

“Yeah?” Dream persisted. “You look for friends who’d hurt you? Do you look for friends you’d built an entire nation with just for them to exile you when tables turn? What do you look for exactly, Tommy. I bet I can be that for you. Do you look for friends who would betray you? I can do that for you—”

“Stop it, Dream, just stop. Please stop.” Tommy’s voice came out fatigued, half choking on a sob.

“Why? Am I not right? Didn’t Tubbo hurt you?”

Tommy attempted to brace himself. “He made a mistake.”

“Would you forgive him?” He fell silent as Dream barged on, taking full advantage of his moment of weakness. “Do you forgive Tubbo, Tommy? Or are you that lonely you’d have him back just for old time’s sake? Is that why you wont accept my friendship, Tommy?”

"I'm sorry," Tommy murmured, tiredly. "I'm sorry. I have to keep waiting for Tubbo." 

"You are a fucking fool," Dream sneered at him, but looked as though he couldn’t bring himself to be truly angry, to be truly mad. “You’re losing all your friends, Tommy. Time is running out. And one day? One day, you’ll lose me too.”

“I’m not sure if I care about a lot of things anymore, Dream.”

The air thickened. Tommy flinched early, expecting a blow. He wasn’t wrong, as just a second later, Tommy landed on the ground next to his dirt house, knees scraping into dry earth.

Dream glared at him, towering. “Armour, now.”

Dream watched as Tommy silently got back up and stripped himself.

He was withering away. Dream was right, time was running out. 

~

4

“You’re worthless, Tommy. You should know that by now! You’re fucking dumb, you keep getting your friends in trouble for your own shit, you should know by now that everyone’s fucking tired of you. Including me! And I’m your only friend!”

“That’s not true, Dream, That’s– that’s not true. I don’t believe that. Stop lying, stop lying!”

They were fighting again, and Tommy thought it was scary. Dream was _scary_ when he got like this, and Tommy wished he wouldn’t– not that he’d ever admit to him, because it would give Dream the one thing he seemed to thrive on: closeness. 

Tommy couldn’t ever be close to Dream.

He watched as the man glowered, his hands twitching to reach out to him, to hurt him.

“You think I would lie to you?” Dream spat out, shaking in rage. “You think that’s what friends do? No, Tommy, I’d never lie to you. It’s just the only truth. Everyone fucking hates you!” 

Tommy flinched, hundred knives impaling him.

“Oh and for that matter, if there’s one thing you ever want to believe, it’s this: no one fucking cares. No one does! Only I do, but you’re nearing the end of my limits. Nobody cares, Tommy. You’re all alone. You should know that by now, shouldn’t you, Tommy? You should know that by now. You’re all alone, Tommy, you’re alone. If I leave you, you have no one! No one at all!”

Tommy felt he was nearing the end of _his_ limits too. He balled up his fists, chest panging horribly with his next words. 

“Fuck, Dream, just kill me. Kill me then, why don’t you just kill me? Just kill me. Do it, you pussy, kill me!”

“Oh Tommy,” Dream quietened. “No. I can’t do that now, can I? I love you, Tommy, you’re my friend. Friends don’t kill each other, do they? Friends stick with each other. And Tommy?” Dream gripped Tommy’s chin hard, tilting it up. “I’m going to stick with you till the very end.”

Dream shoved him back playfully by the chin, it was playfully right? Tommy wasn’t sure of anything anymore. “We’re going to be friends, forever, Tommy. It’s a ride or die, till the end.” he motioned to the pit next to them, freshly dug out dirt sitting upturned on the ground. 

Tommy knew the next words he’d say. 

He’d heard him say them so many times by now, he didn’t know why he kept coming back. 

“Now Tommy? Put your armour in the hole.”

“Yes, Dream.”

A minute passed, Dream watching him, him staring in nothingness, and then the explosion. It only took another bit of Tommy’s sanity with it.

~

5 

The last time he was walking on the edge of life and death.

“Tommy, don’t,” Dream warned. “Your time will come, now is not your time to die.” 

_Your time will come,_ Tommy wanted to laugh. Tommy wanted to laugh himself into hysteria as he made the jump, finally, _finally,_ crossing the finishing line of life. 

He wanted to laugh. He wanted to forget he’d ever cried, forget he’d ever felt sadness. 

But perhaps most importantly, he wanted it to be the only thought in his head as his body plunged into blistering lava, his soul heading straight to hell, both melting into the sizzling heat as one. 

Peering down the ledge, eyes burning at the searing heat the lava radiated, he agreed. He wanted that to be his last thought, and not Tubbo, Wilbur, Phil, or Technoblade. Not L’manberg, not his fucking _discs,_ and definitely not Dream.

He’d grown attached to Dream more than he let on.

Looking down was a bad move. His head starting to curl up in a frightening scream, Tommy steadied himself on the narrow ledge by wiping sweaty palms on the side of his t-shirt. “Why not, Dream?” he asked instead. Give it a last shot, his heart told him. “Why not? Might as well, shouldn’t I? There’s nothing left for me here. No one cares about me, like you once said. You were right. Might as well, I say.”

Behind him, standing on the safety of flat ground, he heard Dream pause. One last time, he whipped around to look at him. 

Dream tilted his head, the smile on his mask as unwavering steady as it was when they first met. “You’re my friend, Tommy,” Dream whispered. “I wouldn’t let you.”

Tommy fell down to his knees. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! 
> 
> i know you're crying, but leave kudos and comments or i'll cry too.
> 
> as an oneshots person, user sub to me i beg. unlike dream, i need to buy my friends presents
> 
> ps, you should go check out josh, because his works are simply phenomenal. his writing deserves the world. i will never stop selling him out lmao, because i am simply right so you should go check him out now before it gets repetitive, and read all his 200+ works and sub to him


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